INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Omaha women's basketball team saw its three-game win streak come to an end in a 69-52 defeat at IUPUI Thursday night.
The Mavericks fell to 12-15 overall and 4-9 in the Summit League with their first loss since Feb. 13. The Jaguars improved to 20-8 and 10-3 in league play to snap a two-game losing skid after a 10-1 start to league play.
The Mavericks jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes and didn't allow IUPUI to get a shot off until its fourth possession, forcing an errant pass by the Jags, a travel and a shot clock violation to begin the game. On the offensive end,
Mikaela Shaw drove for a layup,
Taijhe Kelly scored an easy layup, and Shaw drilled a 3-pointer from the wing at the 17:30 mark to put the Mavs up 7-0.
However, the Jaguars answered with a 22-2 run to go up 22-9 by the 10:05 mark on an Akilah Sims basket. IUPUI used its suffocating full-court pressure to force the Mavs into 14 first-half turnovers.
The Mavs fought back and cut the lead to six at 22-16 with another 7-0 run, capped by a shot clock-beating jumper by
Lanese Bough with 4:36 remaining. However, IUPUI pushed the lead back to 12 and held a 33-22 lead at the half.
The Jaguars extended the lead to 41-22 with an 8-0 run out of the halftime break. Kelly's layup with 15:04 remaining was the first points of the half for the Mavs. UNO trailed 46-24 but ran off six in a row to cut it to 46-30 after buckets by Shaw, Bough and House. A Bough jumper with 10:00 left got the Mavs within 15 at 49-34. But the Mavs couldn't close the gap any further.
Kelly led the Mavs with 15 points and seven rebounds. She went 11-of-14 at the free throw line.
Ericka House had 14 points, while Bough had eight points and four steals. Shaw finished with seven points and six rebounds while playing just 22 minutes because of foul trouble - she fouled out with 9:33 remaining.
DeAirra Goss led IUPUI with 17 points. Sims had 15 and five rebounds. Dawn Luster had four points and nine assists.
The Mavs shot 39.5 percent (17-of-43) overall and just 9.1 percent (1-of-11) from 3-point range. The Mavs were strong at the free throw line, hitting 17-of-20 (85.0 percent). IUPUI shot 52.2 percent (24-of-46) from the floor and 46.2 percent (6-of-13) from 3-point range. The Jaguars went 15-of-24 from the free throw line (62.5 percent).
Omaha ends the 2013-14 season at Fort Wayne on Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT).
